The Musings Of An Opinionated Sod [Help Me Grow!]

Brand Campbell – now there’s a positioning challenge.

i totally agree with you, and jill. and i blame andy warhol and ogilvy for making celebrity and advertising sexy (and consequently a socially desirable state of mind).

oh for fuck sake, campbells back to his planning bollocks. i thought id sorted that out once and for all.

oh this is from jill? fucking interesting then.

actually i hate to agree with anyone “campbell” but i think this is bang on. just like when planners describe companies as people. theyre not people, theyre fucking companies and “pretending” to be george fucking clooney doesnt take away from the fact most of them treat their customers like a pile of fucking shit.

and as for you dodds.

everyone knows who campbell is so why are you saying he would be a positioning challenge? he is a fucking great example of people knowing exactly what he stands for, its the bastards like general motors or ski fucking yoghurt that would be the challenge.

sure he has the external beauty of a 1974 skoda, but inside hes a fucking diamond so lay off my mate or else.

fuck, im protecting campbell again. well its not all stupidity as youll all learn in a few months.

OH

MY

GOD

Andy is “defending my honour”. I think you’re right Pete, he MUST HAVE a fever, ha!

I agree with you Pete – media has been one of the biggest drivers of the “brand mentality” and given many in society see that as the ultimate expression of wealth and/or success, is it any surprise some refer to themselves in such a way?

I think the dehumanising factor is really interesting because people have been educated to see brands as ‘objects’ [for want of a much better term] so when a person/celebrity does something wrong, the masses have no hesitation on turning their back on them because the ‘human element’ has already gone from the relationship.

Maybe 🙂

Why on earth are you trying to respond to Andy with a serious comment John. Unless you actively are trying to provoke him, you know he won’t give a shit.

I’ve told you this before, but you really shouldn’t comment on this blog when you’re tired from watching late night CSI re-runs.

A company who you can engage to develop your own personal brand?

What a great idea – expect cynic DNA very soon!

[And you might not know the rules Jill as you tend to only come to this blog when you are having difficulty sleeping … but because my Mum – YOUR MOTHER IN LAW – comes here quite often, every time you swear you have to place a 🙂 immediately afterwards so that the evil of the statement is counteracted to Mummy-friendly levels]

But thanks for popping by – and hell, at least this post proves I listen to you which is more than most husbands do.

Well, according to Andy’s exes anyway.

I think that’s Jill’s point Lauren – you’re not a brand, you’re a talented human being and if others refer to you [or your work] in that way, that’s very different to YOU thinking/refering to yourself like that because when that happens, there are several potential ramifications including …

1. Dehumanising you.
2. Potentially influencing how you think/act.
[and not always in a good way]
3. Turns you into a commodity, not a human.

I’m sure there’s more – and I know there are plenty of pro-sides to it – but it’s all about perspective and she/I thinks that if you consider yourself a brand, that’s not in the best interests of you or society as a whole.

But then I would say that, she’s my missus! 🙂

Hi Niko – I know what you’re saying, but if we go around in life focused on how others see our ‘brand’, we’re going to end up a pretty fucked up society who actually DON’T do things for fear of damaging the delicate veneer we’ve surrounded ourselves with.

Funny how the people who describe themselves as a ‘brand’ tend to be the ones who haven’t achieved anything of note quite as of yet 🙂

Cheeky sod – but sadly accurate, ha!

Can’t agree with Niko’s implication that viewing oneself as a brand is part of the path to self-actualisation. The latter is about how you know yourself, “branding” is about how you want to be seen or think people want to see you in order to be liked and that’s why Jill is right.

And Lauren, I thought you were immune to it, but it’s clear you spent too much time with advertising folk while in London and are in early stage of pseudoenza. But you’re not too far gone, you never used the b word in reference to the work/art you dragged me to in various galleries so there is hope for you remaining an SLB.

I am an onion.

I think jill makes exceedingly good points.

“Funny how the people who describe themselves as a ‘brand’ tend to be the ones who haven’t achieved anything of note quite as of yet”

ouch!

and doddsy, thank you. but the insidious thing is that it’s not the verbalisation of the branding attitude amongst artists, it’s the thinking – we all operate on that level. especially the ones i dragged you to (may i introduce you to mr hirst TM).

i realise that you were referring to the bunch of idiot fucks who do refer to themselves explicitly as brands – it just came straight after i had mentioned that there’s the grey area of real people like artists (and musicians, mind) who do operate on a branding principle for their careers.

thousands of trees have been killed in the process of discussing the commodification of artists and musician, so i’ll just leave it be for now. can’t wait to read your quiet little piece on the werbeblogger biz.